Is it just me or has January felt like a lifetime. I'm ashamed of how little I've done this month. Its so easy to hide away in my room and watch the snow fall. I've decided that I want to take more pictures and create some sort of portfolio. I really love photography and I think I need something in my life that gives me some sort of satisfaction. The only resolution I have kept this month is my promise to start a notebook. I intend to start experimenting with collages, I think it would combine my love of pop culture and... glitter

Lately I've been inspired by a pop artist called Pauline Boty. She was heavily involved in the sixties British pop art movement and was known for being one of the first proto-feminist icons of the sixties. She often made collages of pop culture icons but her most famous works deal with feminism and female sexuality.

I noticed Pauline Boty in a documentary on British pop art called Pop Goes the Easel which followed four young pop artists (Pauline Boty, Peter Blake, Derek Boshier and Peter Phillips) around London. The documentary is a pretty good insight into sixties London. I absolutely loved the dance scene at the end of the film of mods and beatniks twisting at a London club. Pauline Boty was a great socialite and free spirit. Her home in Shepherds Bush was the meeting place for students, artists and eccentrics. She was known for having the Monroe-esque quality of being both alluring and vulnerable. It was often thought that she was a Brigitte Bardot look-alike but I think she looks more like a blonde Anna Karina. She was described by the writer Joe Massot as having "marvellous strawberry ice cream and leonine hair"

In the years before the feminist art movement she struggled to get her work taken seriously "women painters like myself felt very alienated, the full feminist movement hadn't come in and we worked in isolated pools, mostly of depression" Boty was a self-assured women and was admired by her fellow artist Peter Blake as being the first woman in London to wear men's 501s. She also described herself as being the secretary of the Anti-Ugly Action in which she and her fellow activists scattered rose petals over the new Barclay's Bank as a protest against unattractive architecture. Unfortunately her life came to a tragically short end. She died from leukaemia in 1966 (aged 28) leaving behind her baby daughter and a small but inspiring body of work.

"A wave drew back, like a hand, then advanced and touched my foot. The drench seemed to come off the sea floor itself, where blind white fish ferried themselves by their own light through the great polar cold. I saw sharks teeth and whales ear bones littered about down there like gravestones. I waited, as if the sea could make my decision for me. A second wave collapsed over my feet, lipped with white froth, and the chill gripped my ankles with a mortal ache. My flesh winced, in cowardice, from such a death. I picked up my pocket book and started back over the cold stones to where my shoes kept their vigil in the violet light. "

I've been inspired by the beautiful twiggy lately. I love how she plays with colour. I'm quite addicted to black but I got a pink suit in Topshop that is very sixties. I wish I had Mary Quant accessories to match. I'll take pictures of it once I get my new camera

Twiggy with boyfriend and manager Justin De Villeneuve and Sonny and Cher at a party in Beverly Hills, 1967

Sorry for this boring life post but I've been feeling a bit disillusioned lately. I hate January. It's too cold to wear a dress and it's too dark to take pictures. I spend most of my time in my room reading, reflecting and listening to music. It's becoming quite boring. I have a feeling I'm going to be let go from my job soon (I work in a video store) I think this little comic strip from a zine I've been reading sums up my life at the video store. Just replace the word book with dvd...

This worst thing about not having a job any more (besides the money problems) is having to look for another job. Interviews are so humiliating :( I finally got around to applying to colleges. I applied to Edinburgh and Glasgow to study Computing with Web Development so fingers crossed...
I ordered a new camera yesterday! It's a Nikon D3100. I couldn't afford a more advanced camera but it's ten times better than my current camera so I'm happy. I can't wait to get it and take some pretty pictures :) I keep thinking of how I'm going to spend the next twelve months. I've got nothing planned and nothing to look forward to. So I took some action and bought two journals to help me be a bit more creative.

I'm thinking of using the pink hardback as a sort of inspiration diary with pictures and playlists and things like that. I love the second journal. It looks so gothic and witchy. I've started using it to keep a track of films I need to watch and books I need to read. I press flowers in between the pages sometimes too.

The first page of a notebook is always so difficult. I gave up trying to think of something artistic and just created a playlist appropriate to how I've been feeling recently...